San Diego police shot and killed a man during a confrontation in an apartment building in downtown San Diego after receiving a call around 1 p.m. yesterday that he was armed with a knife and threatening to kill his mother. The incident took place at a building in Cortez Hill, at Sixth Avenue and Cedar Street. The mother managed to get out safely and was treated at a hospital for minor injuries.
According to the report, a neighbor called emergency services. When police and other responders arrived, the man barricaded himself inside the apartment and placed large pieces of furniture near the door. He then started a fire inside the unit, and smoke could be seen coming from the windows. Items, including kitchenware, were thrown from the window onto police vehicles below, and NBC reported that two patrol cars were damaged by large objects thrown from the apartment.
Police then fired at the man. Officers immediately began life-saving measures and called paramedics, who took him to a hospital where he was later pronounced dead. Mako’s Asaf Vaknin reported that the man was holding an Israeli flag and wearing an IDF shirt when he was shot, though his identity and motive were not clear.
One resident, Lena Kincaid, who lives in the apartment above the fire, said she heard a woman screaming and then saw the man throwing objects out of the window, including a microwave and other items. She said police later came to her door because he had set the apartment on fire. The man also threw objects at officers in the stairwell, and one hit a police officer without causing injury. The building was evacuated, sprinklers extinguished the fire, and the apartment suffered water damage.
